Device for removing photographs from albums.



Patented Feb. 27, I900. c. HELD. DEVICE FOR REMOVING PHOTOGRAPHS FROM ALBUMS.

(Application filed July 11, 1899.)

(No Model.)

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UNTTEE STATES PATENT EFTQE.

CHARLES HELD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

DEVICE FOR REMOVING PHOTOGRAPHS FROM ALBUMS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 644,136, dated February 27, 1900. Application filed July 11, 1899. Serial No. 723,447. (No model.)

To all whom it nutyconocrn:

Be it known that I, CHARLES HELD, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Devices for Removing Photographs from Albums, of which the following is a full and complete specification, such as will enable those skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to devices for removing photographs from photograph-albums;

and the object thereof is to provide an improved device of this class by means of which a photograph may be quickly and easily removed from an album without danger of tearing or otherwise injuring the frame in which the photograph is placed.

The invention is fully disclosed in the following specification, of which the accompanying drawings form a part, in which Figure 1 is a plan view of an open album and showing the method of operating my improvement; Fig. 2, a section on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 a perspective view of the device which constitutes-the subject of this application.

In the drawings forming part of this specification the separate parts of my improvement are designated by the same numerals of reference in each of the views, and in Fig. 1 I have shown an ordinary photograph-album 5, the leaves of which are shown at 6, and each of these leaves is provided with a central opening 7, which constitutes the frame in which the photograph is placed. The leaves 6 are preferably made of cardboard 8, each side of which is covered, as shown at 9, with thin strong paper. in the usual manner, and the opening 7 is formed by cutting out the cardboard sheet and the frame which holds the picture or photograph by projecting the sheets 9 inwardly to form flanges 10, all these features being of the usual construction.

The bottom flanges 10 of the frame are preferably wider than the sides and top-flanges, and near the bottom of the leaf below the opening 7 is a transverse slit 11, through which the photograph is passed.

A photograph isrepresented at 12 in Fig. 2, and when inserting thesame into the frame formed in the leaf the upper end thereof is passed through the slit 11 and shoved upwardly until the photograph drops into position. When once in position, it is very diffioult to remove the photograph without tearing or otherwise injuring the leaf or the frame in which the photograph is placed, and the bottom strip or flange 10 is easily torn or injured, and it is to obviate this trouble that my improvement is provided.

This device consists of a long thin flexible blade 13,preferably composed of spring metal, provided at one end with a handle 14, preferably formed integrally therewith, and at the opposite end with a short angular shoulder hook or projection 15. The blade 13 is preferably quite narrow and is slightly wider at the handle end thereof than at the other end, and the hook or projection 15 is very short, being no longer than the thickness of an ordinary cardboard on which the photograph is mounted.

In using this device the hook end 15 of the blade 13 is passed through the slit 11 and said blade is pushed upwardly back of the photograph until the hook 15 of the end thereof engages with the upper end of the photograph. This operation presses the lower end of the photograph outwardly, and with it the bottom flange or strip 10, as shown in Fig. 2, and then by pulling downwardly on the handle 14 of the blade 13 the photograph maybe easily removed, as will be readily understood.

By means of this device a photograph may be quickly and easily removed from an album without danger of tearing or otherwise injuring the album or the leaf thereof in which the photograph is placed, and although I have shown the handle 14 and the blade 13 as formed integrally it will be apparent that changes in and modifications of the construction described may be made without depart ing from the spirit of my invention or sacrificing its advantages, the only object in this connection being to provide a device for the purpose specified having a long thin spring shank or blade having a short hook or projec tion at one end, and it will be also apparent that this device may be made of other material than that herein specified.

Having fully described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent A device for removing photographs from In testimony that I claim the foregoing as albums, comprising a handle provided with my invention Ihave signed myname, in preslo a long thin flexible shank or blade having an ence of the subscribing witnesses, this 10th angular shoulder or projection at the end opday of July, 1899.

5 posite the handle, said projection being sub- CHARLES HELD.

stantially of a length corresponding to the WVitnesses: thickness of a photograph card-mount, sub- F. A. STEWART,

stantially as shown and described. C. C. OLSEN. 

